TOM THE DANCING BUG: Whose Encampment Should Crowd-Control Police Be Breaking Up?

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• [telaquapacky]

  Is that that other world in the parallel universe we’ve heard about? Can Branson or Rutan get me there?

  • [benher]

    Nope, just the parallel EARTH on the other side of the sun… 

• [Ashen Victor]

  “Ground pepper, sir?”

  Yes, plenty for them, please.

• [lavardera]

  Yes, it does in fact feel that wrong when the police hassle and harm the OWS protesters. 

• [benher]

  -or-

  Percival Dunwoody! What have you done now!!!

• [Mark A]

  Best line: “The halls of Congress are public property”.
  It’s been decades since Congress has acted that way.

• [Matthew Harris]

  Yet again, Ruben Bolling proves that he’s the master of reductio ad absurdam.

  • [jtegnell]

    Really? That’s your criticism of a cartoon?

    You’re not familiar with the medium, are you?

    • [Jim Saul]

      I think the praise was sincere.

• [CSBD]

  I really dislike the reality of police protecting not the public but city hall and or the political apparatus which they think they serve.   

  I have always assumed this is because police uphold the law and forget that law originates from approval of “we the people” not just from elected officials who sign it into legal existence.

  • [aHarshDM]

    It happens because police follow the orders of their superiors. The police aren’t waxing philosophic on the nature of law enforcement while they beat down protesters, they’re just doing their job, following orders the best way they know how. Are some cops fascist assholes? Yes. But I’d say that more than a few go home to their families and at the very least deal with some very conflicting emotions. I’m willing to bet that many a cop has had a lot of sleepless nights after events like Oakland. We must be careful not to de-humanize them. There’s still a person behind each badge.

    • [Guest]

      There’s still a person behind each badge.

      well, behind most of them anyhow.

      • [Amy L Sacks]

        Plus, you often can’t tell you’ve met up with the bad variety until it’s too late.  It’s not as if other cops will graciously share that information with you in advance of the demo. (“We’re sending Stevens, Lawrence, Davis, and McCoffey down to the park today.  They’re all pretty good, except for Davis. He yells a lot and last week he kicked the shit out of the vending machine again.  Try not to look him straight in the eye, okay?”)

        • [phisrow]

          Conveniently, knowledge of which aw-shucks-basically-good-guys will cover for their more destructive colleagues is valuable information about how basically good they are…

          Honestly, that is where my pessimism concerning police rot really kicks in. Even fields that ostensibly involve no opportunity to apply violence have their share of dangerous assholes. Cops, though, are almost farcically bad at drumming out the scum inside, even when they cannot help but know that it is there. 

        • [toyg]

          Playing devil’s advocate, one could say that sometimes you need that scum in order to take on the scummier criminal elements. When the only language some criminals understand is pure violence, you have to send in equally crazy policemen to “have a conversation”, so to speak.

          Unfortunately, once you hire scum, they end up making work for their idle thumbs, and then Oakland happens.

        • [CastanhasDoPara]

          That(!), is such a load of horse crap. For one thing, you don’t ‘have a conversation’ with super-violent criminals even if instead of words you’re using a pair of tongs and a blowtorch. You capture, try and hopefully jail these bad eggs. And that should also include any cop who thinks that the law of the jungle is the law that they are meant to uphold. In the case of justice it is not correct to visit upon criminals the same treatment they would dish out to their victims. (As much as I like the idea of rapists getting ‘the shaft’ in prison, it’s still not the job of law enforcement to provide or use the strap-on, as it were.) I realize that you are simply doing the devil’s advocate thing but seriously, that sort of idea should be quickly snuffed out so as not to continue the cycle of violence.

        • [Guest]

          I think you missed his point somewhat. From what he said I got that ‘maybe nicer guys don’t have the stomach for meeting the violent criminal element’. I do not think he meant ‘we should be going medeval on their asses’.  Aside from that. essentially, I believe you are both correct.

        • [Amy L Sacks]

          Yeah.

          That’s why I love the people at Portland Copwatch.  Publicly compiling the egregious failure of the Uniforms to “police themselves” has got to be one of the most thankless jobs out there.  But despite their limited resources, they keep doing it anyway.

• [Uthor]

  I think this comic is trying to be sarcastic!

  • [ookluh]

    I think this comic is succeeding!  It is also trying to be polemic!  This comic has ambition! 

• [Matthew Jones]

  I love how, in comic strips, when people wear eyeglasses their eyeballs disappear.

• [millie fink]

  “Who are THEY harming?”

  Spot on, mate.

• [purple-stater]

  Purely awesome.

• [Sparg Otyebat]

  “We were only following orders.” lol One of the main things I remember from my time in the Army was our training about following illegal orders.  Perhaps it’s different for the LEOs, those soldier wannabes.

• [strangefriend]

  Excellent, Mr. Cartoonist!